MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars)

Canada's first space telescope. MOST is an astronomical microsatellite mission
that had been proposed by the Canadian company Dynacon Enterprises Ltd and
was launched on Jun. 30, 2003 by a three-stage Rockot launch vehicle from
Pletesk into a low-Earth polar orbit (approx. 820 km altitude; approx. 100
min. period). Also participating in the mission are the University of Toronto's
Institute for Aerospace studies, and the physics and astronomy department
of the University of British Colombia. The project is sponsored by the Canadian
Space Agency's Small Payloads Program. From its dawn-dusk sun-synchronous
orbit, MOST can carry out observations of up to 8 weeks for a single object
of interest using a 15-cm telescope photometer. Its scientific goals are
to detect and characterize (1) acoustic oscillations in Sunlike stars, (2)
reflected light from giant exoplanets, and (3) turbulent variations in Wolf-Rayet
stars.